


A Whisper and a Bang

by iam93percentstardust



Category: Doctor Who (2005), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 04:34:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11959830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iam93percentstardust/pseuds/iam93percentstardust
Summary: Who exactly was Bucky's date the night of the Stark Expo?





	A Whisper and a Bang

**Author's Note:**

> I took some liberty with the names...

Clara had never heard the TARDIS make that noise before. It had never shuddered the way it did now. Frankly, she was a little concerned. She wished she could call the Doctor, ask him for help, but the Doctor had forgotten who she was.

For a moment, she felt a pang of regret. Perhaps she should have let him erase her memory. Maybe it was better for him to remember when no one else could. But then she remembered the tortured look in his eyes as he had tried to remember what had happened to Clara Oswald and she knew that she couldn’t have let him live with those moments.

The TARDIS shuddered again. Clara yanked at the controls just as she yanked her attention back to the time machine. On the other side of the console, Me was hanging on to the railing for dear life. The two had enough time to share a grimace before smoke billowed out of the console.

“Can’t you do anything about this?” Me shouted.

Clara reached for the landing lever and pulled hard. “If I could,” she replied, “we wouldn’t be having this problem, would we?”

With a final shiver, the TARDIS came to a stop. Clara sat back with a satisfied smile. “There, you see? Knew it would work out eventually.” She gently patted the console. “Good job, old girl.” It purred.

Me reached for the screen, presumably to see what planet had given the TARDIS such fits. “Clara, you’re going to want to see this,” she commented.

“What?”

“New York City, Earth. 1942.”

Clara stared at her for a moment, stunned. “That can’t be right,” she murmured, hurrying over. “Earth has never done something like this before.” She glanced at the slightly smoking console. “Me, can you take a look in the library? See if there’s anything you can do about that?”

“Of course,” Me said. She started for one of the many hallways and paused. “What are you going to do?”

“Take a look around,” Clara said with a smile. Me raised an incredulous eyebrow. “Really,” Clara reassured her. “I’m worried about the TARDIS. Her reaction was odd. I’ll only be an hour or two.”

“We’d hate to never make it back to Gallifrey,” Me quipped.

“We’ll get there,” Clara promised as Me dropped down the corridor. As soon as Me was gone from sight, Clara turned to go down a different hallway- one that she knew led to the closets. After all, a time traveler had to look the part, didn’t she?

Twenty minutes later, Clara emerged from the TARDIS looking just like a young 1940s American woman. She turned to see what shape the Chameleon Circuit had taken. Me had recently fixed it after it had gotten stuck as a diner. This would be the first time they took it out for a test drive. As such, Clara was a tad disappointed to see an early Model T Ford.

“And here I thought you’d go for something a bit sexier,” Clara teased. She imagined that she could hear the TARDIS rumbling at her. “I know you can do better than that.”

Before her eyes, the Chameleon Circuit changed so that a sleek black car stood parked.

“Better,” Clara granted. She turned to face the street. “Now, let’s see.” It seemed like a great number of people were hurrying northwards. She studied their faces and found that most looked excited rather than apprehensive. Well, it looked like she too would head north.

She hadn’t gone far before she heard footsteps behind her. A second later, two burly workmen drew even with her on either side. She sighed. This happened with alarming regularity.

As they kept pace with her, her eyes narrowed. If she were at home or at any point in the future, she would have dissuaded them from their interest. A few broken fingers typically did the trick. But she was in 1940s America and the average woman did not break men’s fingers. Besides, she was trying to keep a low profile.

Clara quickened her pace, hoping to lose the two. Of course, it didn’t work. The workmen sped up to match her. As they passed a narrow alleyway, they began crowding her off the street. Resigning herself to making a fuss, she grabbed the hand of one of them. He leered at her- she struggled-

“Excuse me,” a voice said.

All three turned to look at the newcomer. Clara’s first thought was that the man looked quite handsome in his army uniform. He had dark, artfully rumpled hair and sparkling brown eyes. A cocky tilt to his head gave him a roguish air.

“I believe that’s my girl,” the man said. He nodded at Clara. She threw him a grateful smile.

“Says who?” one of the workmen demanded. “You wasn’t with her.” Clara slipped free from his grasp and took a step behind the uniformed stranger. The moment she was free, her protector planted his feet and threw a punch at the workman’s face. Caught off guard as he was, the workman crumbled where the stood. The stranger raised his eyes to the remaining workman. He raised his hands in surrender and backed away.

Clara turned to the stranger. “Thank you,” she said. She glanced at his rank. “Sergeant…?”

“James Barnes,” he supplied. “Miss…?”

Clara didn’t want to give her real name, worried a bit about changing the past. “Connie Oswald.” She stuck out her hand. “Pleasure to meet you, Sergeant Barnes.”

He raised her hand to his lips and kissed it gently. “Pleasure’s all mine. And, please, call me Bucky.”

Clara smiled. “I will keep that in mind.” She glanced back at the street. “I’m a tad new here. What’s going on?”

Bucky gave her an incredulous look. “The Stark Expo!” Clara stared blankly. “Howard Stark’s gonna introduce his new inventions.”

Clara’s brow furrowed. She’d heard of Howard Stark- in comic books. But that didn’t make sense. She took a closer look at Bucky, this time noting his resemblance to the comic book Winter Soldier. It couldn’t be though. Bucky Barnes was just a fictional character.

“Gonna be at the Expo?” Bucky asked. She noticed that he was still holding her hand. “Stark’s supposed to be ushering in the future.”

She thought about it for a moment. It seemed possible, even probable, that the Expo had caused the TARDIS to shudder and smoke. If that were so then it seemed that the Expo was the place she needed to be.

“Only if you will,” she flirted.

A crooked smile spread across his face and he winked. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” He offered her his arm. Clara hooked her hand inside his elbow and they set off down the street.

They hadn’t gone more than a hundred yards when a light feminine voice called, “Bucky!”

The two turned. A young blonde woman was hurrying up the sidewalk toward them. Bucky sighed and then greeted her. “Ethel!”

Clara put her back to them and whipped out her phone. Surprised to see that she actually had service, she quickly texted Me, asking her to look up the Stark Expo in 1942. By the time she had turned back around, the blonde woman was tucked against Bucky’s side, a triumphant grin on her face. Bucky looked both furious and apologetic.

“Connie,” he said. “This is Ethel.”

From the catty look in Ethel’s eyes, Clara figured that she had been Bucky’s original date before Clara had arrived. Although, judging from Bucky’s look, he was sure that he had found a better date in Clara. That was fine. She could find her own way to the Expo.

Then Bucky offered his other arm to her. Both women must have looked surprised because he explained, “No reason we can’t all go together.”

Clara shrugged and threaded her arm back through Bucky’s. “Sounds perfect,” she said. Ethel’s eyes narrowed at her.

As they walked, Ethel asked Bucky questions about his new post in the army. There was a small chirp from one of the pockets in Clara’s dress. Me must have texted. Clara glanced at the other two but neither of them seemed to have heard the odd sound.

Furtively, she slipped her phone out of her pocket and checked the text. Me wanted her to call.

_Busy. Can’t call._

_Fine… Clara, there was no Stark Expo in 1942._

_That’s not possible. I’m going there right now._

_I don’t know where you’re going but I’m telling you, there is no Stark Expo._

_What about a Sergeant James Barnes? Can you google him?_

She stuck her phone back into her pocket as Ethel turned to her. “So, Connie, I’ve never seen you around before,” Ethel commented.

“New in town,” Clara replied. “Never been here before.”

“And you just happened to run into Bucky here?” Ethel asked skeptically.

Clara shrugged. “More like he ran into me. I was in a bit of trouble and he was there to help me out.”

To her surprise, Ethel giggled. She asked Bucky, “Another stray? You pick people up like cats.” She peered around him to tell Clara, “Bucky is the neighborhood’s Good Samaritan. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him without at least one stray tagging along after him.”

“I used to know someone like that,” Clara said, fond memories of the Doctor in her mind. “Could never pass by a distressed person, especially not crying children.”

“Bucky too!”

Just like that, Clara knew that she had found a friend in Ethel. Whatever her original misgivings about Clara had been, she had seemed to warm up to her pretty easily.

They rounded the corner and Clara gasped. It was like the World Fair on steroids had come to New York in 1942. There was an enormous metal globe surrounded by flags from every country. A cross between a subway car and a rollercoaster transported people from one end of the Expo to the other. There were futuristic buildings lit up like it was broad daylight. Everywhere Clara looked, she saw technology that shouldn’t have existed in 1942. Clara dropped her arm from Bucky’s and turned slowly, staring at everything. This wasn’t possible.

“If you ladies don’t mind,” Bucky said. “I have to go find a friend. Won’t be more than a minute.” Clara nodded, still open-mouthed.

The moment Bucky was out of sight, Clara dug her phone out of her dress. “What’s that?” Ethel asked curiously. Clara ignored her.

She dialed Me. “Please tell me you have news,” Clara said as soon as Me picked up.

“I do. But I don’t think you’re going to like it.”

“Doesn’t matter. Tell me anyway.”

“I think we’re in a parallel universe.”

Clara was silent. She didn’t know what to say. How could they be in a parallel universe? Again, she wished that the Doctor were there. He’d know what to do.

“Clara?” Me asked. “Are you still there?”

“Yes.” She hesitated. “What makes you think this is a parallel universe?”

“I googled James Barnes like you asked me to. There’s nothing. He doesn’t exist outside of comic books. So then I was reading up on TARDIS malfunctions and there it was. Everything that was going wrong with the TARDIS can be explained by it trying to make a jump into a parallel universe.”

“And so now we’re in a world where superheroes are real,” Clara said, sighing.

“Apparently.”

Clara looked up to see Ethel watching her. “Is there anything we can do?” she asked, lowering her voice.

“Wait. The TARDIS needs time to rebuild the energy needed to make a jump back into our universe.”

“How much time?”

“A day. You say you’re at the Stark Expo? Might as well have fun.” There was a soft click. The line went dead.

“You say the strangest things,” Ethel said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were from another world.”

“Wouldn’t that be funny,” Clara said. She looked up and saw Bucky returning with someone else. She called out, “Hey, Bucky!”

Bucky smirked and offered his arm out to Clara, leaving Ethel with Bucky’s friend. “Connie, Ethel, this is Steve Rogers, my friend and an amazing gentleman.”

Clara managed to stifle a gasp. So this was Captain America. He wasn’t much to look at- had to be pre-serum. One good wind could probably blow him over. He was scrawny, barely taller than her (and it wasn’t like she was on the tall side), and looked ill at ease.

Ethel took hold of Clara’s arm and dragged her a few steps away. “Look, you’re new in town,” she said, holding up a hand to forestall Clara’s questions. “And I want you to have a good time, so I’m going to leave you as Bucky’s date. But let me warn you- Steve is a good man and both Bucky and I will have something to say if you can’t keep a civil tongue.”

Clara glanced back at the two men. Ethel followed her gaze. Bucky was watching them almost worriedly. Steve looked resigned, although Clara wasn’t sure about what. Her heart went out to him; he reminded her a little of Courtney Woods- headstrong, so sure they could take on the world, but more vulnerable than they cared to admit.

“Don’t worry,” she said quietly. “I can tell he’s a good man.”

Ethel looked slightly mollified; at least, she led Clara back to the two men. For all her words, though, Clara noticed that Ethel seemed to be less than enthused about being Steve’s date. In fact, she spent most of the time ignoring Steve as much as she could.

They wandered from exhibit to exhibit, checking out the tech that Howard Stark had invented. Clara surreptitiously checked her phone every so often to see any new updates that Me had sent. There wasn’t much. Like Me had said, the only thing they could do was wait.

“Are there any presentations?” Clara asked, spying a small stage nearby.

Bucky checked his watch. “Stark’s supposed to be showing off his inventions in a few minutes-”

He cut off as cheerful music began to play from the stage and an unseen announcer called, “Welcome to the Modern Marvels Pavilion and World of Tomorrow. A greater world. A better world.”

Gold curtains flew open on the stage, revealing a cherry red car and several beautiful women. Clara clutched Bucky’s hand; mouth slightly agape at the sight of the shapely legs on several of the presenters. She remembered the time that she’d caught a glimpse of the Doctor’s previous companion and privately thought that at least a few of these women could rival Amy Pond for the most legs on a human.

“Oh my god, it’s starting!” she squealed.

She and Ethel hurried toward the pavilion, dragging Bucky along with them. Steve followed at a slower pace, reluctantly Clara thought.

One of the women announced, “Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Howard Stark!”

Stark swaggered on stage, handed his hat to the woman, and kissed her soundly. Clara chuckled as a woman from the audience shouted that she loved Howard. Some things never changed, she thought wryly.

Howard wiped his mouth with a handkerchief and then began to talk. “Ladies and gentlemen, what if I told you that in just a few short years, your automobile won’t even have to touch the ground at all?”

He paused as the women removed the wheels from the car. “Yes, thanks Mandy,” he said quietly, moving the podium out of the way. “With Stark gravitic reversion technology, you’ll be able to do just that.”

He flipped a switch on the podium. There was a low hum from the car and a glow emitted from the wheel wells. Slowly, the car lifted off the ground. Clara’s jaw dropped; it couldn’t possibly be real. And yet, she couldn’t spot any wires lifting the car. It was simply hovering.

“Holy cow,” Bucky muttered from behind her.

Then there was a spark from the car and it crashed to the ground with a load of smoke and a loud bang. The crowd gasped. Clara flinched but grinned, reminded of the TARDIS.

Stark shrugged, seemingly unfazed. “I did say a few years, didn’t I?” he reminded the audience. Everyone laughed. Stark continued to explain the technology behind the car and people began to wander off, the science going far over their head. Clara listened, enthralled, and surreptitiously recorded Stark’s explanation on her phone. She didn’t quite understand all of the science but she knew Me would be disappointed if she didn’t get a chance to hear it.

Bucky leaned in closer to her. “Would you like to go dancing with me?” he asked, dark eyes fixed on hers.

She pretended to consider but knew her answer. “Of course,” she replied. It wasn’t like she had anywhere to go.

Bucky turned away, presumably to talk to Steve but Steve was gone. He groaned. “Would you ladies excuse me for a moment?” Before they could say anything, he was pushing through the crowd.

Clara turned her attention back to Howard Stark but he was wrapping up. She glanced around, wondering where the boys might have gone. Her eye fell on a USO recruiting center. Of course. That had to be where the boys were. She knew from the comics that Steve wanted nothing more than to be a soldier.

“This way,” she told Ethel and began making her way toward the center. As they neared the center, she saw Bucky and Steve silhouetted in the entrance. They appeared to be arguing about something. Clara had a sneaking suspicion she knew what they were arguing about. If she remembered the comics correctly, this was when Steve would be recruited into Project Rebirth but not if Bucky kept badgering him to leave. Maybe, they just needed a little nudge.

“Hey Sarge!” she called. “Are we going dancing?”

Bucky glanced at her. “Yes, we are!” He turned back to Steve, seeming to wrap up their conversation. A moment later, he was jogging down the steps toward the women, saying, “Come on, girls. They’re playing our song.”

Bucky was distracted and unfocused. Clearly, Clara thought, he was still worried about Steve. Before long, Ethel had left for the night, swearing that she had a splitting headache. Clara hoped that Bucky’s mood would improve as the night wore on but it was nearing midnight and there had been no change.

Finally, she gave up. She apologized and made her goodbyes, not sure that Bucky even noticed her departure. Making her way back to the TARDIS was slow going as she kept dodging into alleys and doorways to avoid suspicious looking people.

Me was absent from the console room when Clara came back. She was unsurprised; for all her alien biology, Me was still human at the core and needed her rest. Clara checked the console and sighed. Still several hours left to go before they could even attempt to make it out of the parallel universe. There would be no guarantee that they would even succeed.

She supposed that it wouldn’t be so bad if they were stuck in this universe forever, although it would certainly mean never returning to Gallifrey. This universe was one of superheroes and magic. And yet, there was no Danny Pink in this world. There was no Rigsy. And there was no Doctor. No, it would be best if they left.

There was a sharp knock on the TARDIS door. Clara started. Who could that possibly be? The TARDIS chameleon circuit was designed to keep people from noticing her.

She grabbed her sonic screwdriver- one she’d designed herself, thank you very much- from her jacket pocket and made her way cautiously to the door. The knocking continued, more insistently now. Clara paused, steeling herself, offered up a quick word of prayer to whatever might be listening, and flung the door open.

She came face to face with Bucky, whose hand was poised to knock again. He looked as startled to see her as she felt to see him. Clara stepped out, closing the door behind her and hoping that he hadn’t seen anything.

Bucky thrust his hands into his pockets. Looking sheepishly at the ground, he said quietly, “I haven’t behaved like a gentleman this evening. I wanted to apologize.”

Clara’s mind whirred as she came to an unsettling conclusion. He knew where to find her. “How did you-?”

“I followed you,” Bucky explained quickly. He opened his mouth to say more and then closed it. Clara remained quiet, however, and eventually he continued, “I am sorry, you know. For how I treated you.”

She shrugged. “You’ve got a lot on your mind.”

Bucky peered at her and she wondered how he had expected her to react. “I was watching you,” he said. “You don’t move like most people.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

It was his turn to shrug now. “Just different. You’re smarter than most of them. They wouldn’t have a care in the world who else walks at midnight.”

“Remind me, how did we meet again?” Clara said, smiling softly. She knew how their first encounter could have gone and how it would have ended if he hadn’t shown up. She would have been just fine. But Bucky wouldn’t have known that.

Bucky inclined his head, conceding her point. Then he surprised her by saying, “But you learned. Other people don’t always do that.”

“I’m not other people,” she replied.

“True. You are definitely not like other women, Miss Connie Oswald.”

She surprised herself by blurting out, “Call me Clara.”

Bucky grinned. “I knew you weren’t being completely honest with me.”

Clara met his gaze, refusing to feel ashamed. There was a reason she had kept her name secret.

“Clara Oswald,” he said and she found that she liked how he said her name. “Much better. It suits you.”

“In what way?” she challenged.

“It’s a beautiful name,” he said, dark eyes glittering. Clara blushed. “Can I take you to dinner?”

“Don’t you have a boat to catch, soldier?” Clara reminded him, her eyes lingering on his uniform.

“We could go now,” Bucky said, seemingly unfazed.

Clara stared at him, wanting to say yes. It had been so long since anyone had shown an interest in her- since Danny, actually- and the TARDIS still had such a long time to go before being ready. And yet…

“I can’t,” she whispered. “I want to but I can’t.”

Bucky looked disappointed and a little surprised. She bet that he wasn’t used to hearing rejections. “You aren’t like other women,” he murmured again.

“Goodbye,” Clara said, turning to go.

Bucky caught her hand before she could leave. He raised it to his lips and kissed it softly. “I hope to see you again, Clara Oswald.”

She knew it was the wrong thing to say but she answered, “I think you will.” He would need that hope when he reached Europe.

He turned and set off down the street, only looking back once. Clara watched him until he disappeared into the darkness. Then she opened the TARDIS door and stepped inside.


End file.
